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{\*\generator Msftedit 5.41.21.2510;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb100\sa100\qc\b\f0\fs44 The Darkness Returns\b0\fs24\par
story by: Andrea\par
\par
\b This is set right after AOD, as you'll see in a sec.\par
\b0\par
\pard\sb100\sa100\ul\b Chapter 1\ulnone\b0\par
Lara runs out of the chamber as the explosion blows up the sleeper and Karel behind her. She runs into the huge room she left Kurtis in with Boaz, but all that was there was Boaz dead body off to the side, and a metal disk in the middle of a pool of blood.\par
She walks up to the pool of blood and crouches down to pick up the disk to realize it's Kurtis' weapon that had almost struck her in the Louvre.\par
She picks it up and as soon as she touched it, five metal blades pop out. She holds it to examine it, but the disk turned her around and started to lead her out of the room to its owner.\par
As soon as she walked out, the blades retracted, and the unknown weapon stopped leading her.\par
"Oh come on. Really," Lara says frustrated. She stuffs it in her backpack and continues walking forward until she walks into a trail of blood. Startled, she follows the trail down a hallway, and around a corner and finds a body on the floor. She slowly walks up to the body and sees that this person is still alive but badly injured. She gets on the ground and turns the person over to see a familiar face.\par
She gasps in horror and says, "Kurtis! Can you hear me?" She takes her backpack off and as she's searching for a medi-pack, she hears, "Lara?"\par
She grabs a medi-pack and looks at Kurtis and says, "Shh. Can you show me where you're hurt?"\par
Kurtis slowly moves his hand to his abdomen area, and Lara also gets a wrap out. She moves Kurtis' hand off to the side and begins to wrap his stomach while applying pressure also.\par
As she finished, she says, "There. That should hold you until we can get you to a hospital." She then helps him up and puts his arm around her neck and shoulders and hold holds him upright. They begin walking and Lara realized, she doesn't know where the exit is.\par
"Damnit. Where the hell is the exit?" she says.\par
"S'over there."\par
"What?" she looks at Kurtis and he mumbles, "The exit is over there." He points his head in the direction of the door and Lara starts to drag Kurtis again. They reach the door and Lara sets Kurtis against the wall as she kicks the door open. She grabs Kurtis again and they walk out into the Prague snow.\par
The sun is beginning to rise and Lara sees Kurtis' motorbike out of the corner of her eyes. She turns herself and Kurtis around and starts for the bike. Panting, she asks, "Where are your keys?"\par
Kurtis replies back with a moan and says in pain, "In my back pocket."\par
They reach the bike and Lara sets Kurtis on the bike as she checks his back pocket for the keys. She grabs a hold of them and pulls them out to find out they were not the right keys.\par
"Kurtis, these are the keys that belong to one of the dead agency soldiers inside the Strahov."\par
"Fuck!" He yells through gritted teeth. He collapse on the ground, doubled over in pain, and Lara tells him to wait there as she runs to the snow filled street. Kurtis watches her as she tries to flag down people on their way to work. After five minutes, Lara finally got someone to slow down and she ran to the window to tell the driver of the car she needed help. The driver got out and Kurtis watched them both rum to him. They helped him up off the ground and they started for the car.\par
Lara opened the backseat door and helped Kurtis get in. Then she herself got in the back also. The driver got in and Lara told him to take them to the hospital immediately.\par
They drive off quick due to Kurtis' moaning and the amount of blood he was losing. Fortunately, the hospital wasn't far so they made great timing. When the car stopped, Lara thanks the friendly driver and got out with Kurtis right behind her.\par
She drags Kurtis into the lobby of the hospital, yelling for a doctor. The nurses looked at her as though she was crazy and she realized she was speaking English. "Oh yeah. I'm in Prague. Uh potrebuji doktora rychle! A anglicky mluvici lekare!" The nurse understood her and went off to find a doctor. Kurtis, holding his stomach, looked down. He was starting to get dizzy and was beginning to feel numb.\par
A doctor ran up to Lara and him and asked, "You're the English lady?"\par
"Yes. Please help my friend." The doctor looked to the right and noticed Kurtis for the first time.\par
"Oh my god," he began. He turned to the nurse beside him told her to get a room ready. He told Lara everything will be fine and asked she go to the waiting room as he helped Kurtis into a wheelchair conveniently next to them. He rolled Kurtis down the hallway to surgery as Lara quickly stuffed her guns in her backpack before walking into the waiting room.\par
She walks in and sits down next to a young boy looking around six years old. The boy, interested in the woman who has sat down, decided to strike up a conversation, asking why she was here. Lara was struck with shock as the boy, who looks terribly ill, could talk.\par
They talked for about an hour, learning about each other. Lara learned he's an orphan and has a brain tumor. He learned she's a famous archeologist. She wanted to hug the little one before he had to go for chemo therapy, but the English speaking doctor came up to Lara and interrupted their conversation.\par
" Your friend will live. He is very lucky that whatever had stabbed him, missed vital organs and tissues."\par
"Thank you Doc. May I see him?"\par
"Of Course. This way please."\par
The Doctor led Lara through double doors and down a hallway full of rooms with patients that had come out of surgery.\par
He led her into the very last room at the end of the hallway, and she looked around and saw Kurtis lying in bed, with his eyes closed.\par
"He's asleep for now but will be up and about later. You may stay with him to be there when he wakes up." And with that, he leaves her standing there at the doorway. She stares at the sleeping body in the bed, and takes little steps towards the man. Reaching the body, she slowly raises her hand and lays it on his arm. With her other hand, she grabs a chair nearby and plops down next to Kurtis. She watches his face while he sleeps and notices he looks very at peace.\par
\i Aw. He looks peaceful\i0 .\i Too bad it won't last long\i0\'85\par
She raises her hand and 'softly' smacks his cheek.\par
Kurtis opens his eyes and lets out a short little moan.\par
"What the hell Lara? You ruined a perfectly good dream."\par
Lara smirks. "What did you dream about?"\par
"Um...you know\'85lollipops and candy canes." Kurtis looks up at Lara and puts on a smile. Lara laughs and shakes her head. "Yeah. Sure. Listen I have to tell you what happened."\par
She looks at Kurtis and he motions her to go on.\par
"Well, I was able to kill Eckardt. But Karel, his so called supporter ended up being a nephili and he tried to convince me to join him to create a benign new order he called it. He morphed into Bouchard, Luddick the news reporter, and\'85" she trails off.\par
"And who else?" asks Kurtis.\par
Lara looks away. "And you." She looks back at Kurtis and locks eyes with him. "Making me think he was you and that he was helping me. But I knew. So I declined his offer and he set on, trying to kill me, but I was able to destroy the Sleeper, and this bright light emitted and struck Karel right through the chest and the room blew up behind me as I was running away."\par
Kurtis looks at her for a few seconds and realizing she was done telling her story, all he could say was, "Damn."\par
" I found your weapon, and it lead me to you. Anyways," Changing the subject, "When did they say you can leave?"\par
"Well with my fast healing, they say tomorrow I can leave."\par
"Oh that's good. Too bad I'll be back home in Surrey." Lara gets up and walks to a window. Stretching, she says, "When you're out, you should come visit me."\par
Kurtis thinks this over and agrees. She gets out a piece of paper and pen and writes down her address and hands it to Kurtis.\par
"Here. I better get going. I'll see you tomorrow Trent." She gives the American one last look and walks out of the room, leaving Kurtis to look down at the paper in his hand. Then remembering his weapon, he yells for Lara and gets nothing but a "shut up" from down the hall.\par
\i Damnit Lara. Fuck it, I getting out tonight and going over to her house as soon as possible to get my Chirugai.\i0\par
He stuffs the address under his pillow and closes his eyes to finish his dream of lollipops and candy canes.\par
\par
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\pard\sb100\sa100\lang1033\ul\b\f0\fs24 Chapter 2\ulnone\b0\par
Kurtis closes his eyes and pretends to fall asleep as the nurse closed the door to go back to her desk. He waits a minute after the door closed and he gets out of the bed quietly. He walks over to the bathroom and finds his clothes next to the sink, He quickly changes and goes back to the bed and lifted it up to grab the piece of paper with Lara's address. He stuffs it in his pocket, and strolls over to the door.\par
\i Time to get my gun\i0 .\par
He opens the door just a little and uses his farsee ability to check where his gun may be. He lift up his hands, palms up, and goes into some sort of trance. He's suddenly out of his body, and is seeing down the hallway, past the patient filled rooms, and finally reaches the nurses desk by the double doors. He checks it out and finds his gun in a bin on the ground near the chair.\par
\i Bingo\i0 .\par
He travels back down the hall to own body, but the amount of force he slammed into his body, made him stumble back, and fall on his butt. Knowing he is fully back to his old self, he mentally slaps himself for thinking he'd be peach perfect.\par
He stands back up and takes little steps to the door, for the fear that his fall might have gotten the nurses attention. He opens the door a little more, and can see the nurse is nowhere to be seen. Making sure the coast is clear, he opens the door all the way, and begins to walk quietly and stealthy to the desk. Stopping ever five steps, to look around, he never saw the nurse again. He reaches the desk and bends down to grab his gun from the bin. Looking around to make sure no one was in the waiting room, he casually walks out through the double doors, through the waiting room, and through the lobby doors, into the snow filled city.\par
Wanting to go over to his bike, which was a block away, he remembered he doesn't have his bike keys.\par
"Damnit." He mutters. He looks around the street, and spots a old black car. He strides up to the car and in an attempt to brake in, he realized the doors were unlocked. Thinking that was weird, he got in and began to hot wire the car.\par
Able to start the car, he drove on into the night, to find an airport. Thinking to himself, \i I'm coming Lara\i0 .\par
\ul\b 12 PM-The next day\ulnone\b0\par
Lara heads downstairs and turns to her left and walks through a hallway to her kitchen. She strolls up to the refrigerator, opens it, and grabs the necessities to make a sandwich. She sets the ingredients down on the counter and looks up, out the window to her assault course. She would love to go out there right now and practice, but it was raining and she was starving. She turned around to grab the bread from the bread box on the island in the middle of the kitchen, when all of a sudden, she hears the doorbell.\par
\i Winston will get it\i0 , she thinks wryly. She continues with her sandwich, and takes a huge bite out of her delicious sandwich. (Think about it. All she's had lately is those damn chocolate bars.)\par
She walks out of the kitchen, as she finishes off her sandwich and sees Winston at the door.\par
"Who was it?" she asks with a mouth full of sandwich.\par
"Some young fellow. Says he knows you. He says his name is Kurtis Trent."\par
She stops chewing. \i That bastard actually came. Nice.\i0\par
"Thank you Winston. I know him. Where is he exactly?"\par
"Up the stairs. I lead him to his room." He points up the stairs and Lara starts for them, taking two steps at a time. She reaches the top and searches the room next to hers. Not finding him, she walks to the next room next to hers, and knocks.\par
"yes?" asks a man with an American accent.\par
"Kurtis. It's Lara. Open up."\par
She hears nothing, then the door opened and in front of her was an attractive man with messed up brown hair and dazzling blue eyes. Her breath was taken away. How come she never felt this way before, she asks herself.\par
He stares at the woman in front of him, and couldn't help but stare. She had cleaned up and looked\'85well, nice. He checked her out quickly and had to yell at himself inside.\par
\i Snap out of it! You just went through hell with her and your already wanting her?\i0\par
He snapped out of it and said, "Hey there Croft."\par
She snapped out of it as well and replied back with, "Hey there Trent. Thought you'd be here later." She crosses her arms, staring at him with those coffee brown eyes.\par
Kurtis mimics her actions and says, "I decided the hospital was making me depressed and left. And also, you have my Chirugai and I want it back."\par
"Your what?"\par
He uncrosses his arms and grabs Lara by the shoulders.\par
\i Oh my.\i0\par
"You know. Metal disk, has blades come out. It almost struck you at the Louvre before I frisked you."\par
"I call it more of sexual harassment but don't worry. I got your chiru- thingy."\par
She moves his hands off her shoulders and motions him to follow her. They walk a short distance to her room (two strides really), and walk inside. She leads him to her desk and she opens the drawer to reveal Kurtis' beloved weapon.\par
"My Chirugai. Thanks for not giving it back yesterday." He swiftly picks up his weapon and five blades pop out of the sides.\par
"We were in a hospital, and there was nowhere to hide it dumbass."\par
"Whatever. I'm going to go take a nap and-"\par
"You take naps?" asked a bemused Lara.\par
"No. But I'm still healing so I thought I'd go rest."\par
"Okay. Have fun sleeping. I'm going to the gym." Lara heads on over to her closet to change into her gym clothes, while Kurtis attaches his Chirugai to his belt loop and walks back to the door. He walks back to his room and jumps on the bed, creaking at the weight of him. He closes his eyes, and his mind starts to wander to dream land.\par
\i "Lara! Throw the damn rope back! I need to get over there!" Lara turns around and stares at the Lux Veritatis man across the chasm. Still holding onto the rope, she gets a knife out of her boot, and cuts the rope short.\i0\par
\i "What the fuck Lara!"\i0\par
\i She stares back at Kurtis, and smiles evilly. She spoke, but it was not her voice. It was a man's voice, and she said, "You stupid mortal." \i0\par
\i She began to change. Physically. Her hair became short and blond. Her brown eyes were suddenly a bright green. Her boobs disappeared and her clothes changed, into a suit. Her face changed of that into a man's and he smiled.\i0\par
\i "No." he breathed. "No! What did you do with Lara, you bastard!"\i0\par
\i Karel just laughs and turns around and walks off, leaving Kurtis there, to die.\i0\par
Kurtis sits up straight and jumps out of bed, heading out the door. He runs into Winston, and asks, "Hey where's Lara?"\par
"Oh she is in the gym, sir. Down the stairs, and to the right," says the old man.\par
"Thanks," Kurtis yells as he runs down the stairs, to the gym. He enters, and looks around the humongous room for Lara. Catching her at the end of the room, near a doorway leading to the pool, he yells her name and gets her attention.\par
She looks up and he motions her to come over near him. Drenching with sweat, she walks over and stops right in front of him. Looking up at his face, showing she was ready to listen to what he had to say, he told her his dream.\par
Finishing telling his dream, he retorts, "Now I don't know what it means, but it did feel more real than a dream. Like a vision."\par
"Of the near or distant future?" she stares at him with confused chestnut eyes.\par
"Exactly. If he really is alive, then we're fucked because those shards are the only weapons that can kill him. Unless\'85" he trails off.\par
He begins to look distant, like he is deep in thought.\par
"Unless what?"\par
Still in deep thought, Lara gets irritated, and says more fiercely, "Unless. What."\par
He snaps back into reality and locks eyes. "Unless we have the Gladius Dei."\par
\par
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\pard\sb100\sa100\lang1033\ul\b\f0\fs24 Chapter 3\ulnone\b0\par
"What the hell is the Gladius Dei?" questions Lara. Kurtis motions her to follow him upstairs to his room. She trudges behind him wishing that she could take a shower, but knew this important information had to come first.\par
They stroll into his room and he walks over to the window.\par
"So you going to tell me or not?" Lara crosses her arms against her chest. He turns around, running his hand through his hair. "It's Latin, for the sword of God. It can kill anything really. If we find it, then find Karel, we can destroy him once and for all."\par
"But, where is it located?"\par
"Jerusalem."\par
"Of course. How do you know all this?"\par
He stares at her in bewilderment. "um, I'm Lux Veritatis honey. I grew up learning how to kill nephilim and was trained how to fight them."\par
"Oh! Pfft. I knew that." She laughs nervously then looks away and looks back and smiles a fake smile.\par
"You are so adorable," he says in a childish voice. She shoots him a mean look and retorts, "yeah don't get used to it." She walks out and yells for Winston. Not getting a response, she heads for the stairs, and before she could take a step down, she hears a window breaking. Reading her guns, she holds them out and walks very quietly down the steps. She heads for the library, and as she reaches the door, the sound of a gun being cocked, caught her attention. She turns around and shoots at the man lifting his gun, on the foot. The man yelps and falls down. She walks over to him, and crouches down to lift the mask off to reveal a face belonging to a young man looking around seventeen.\par
"What are you doing in my house?" she asks through clenched teeth.\par
"Not telling. Master wouldn't like that," he replies. "Well, you're not going to live very long unless you tell me."\par
The boy spits at her face, and she aims her gun at his other foot, and shoots, missing on purpose.\par
"Tell. Me. NOW."\par
Groaning in pain, he tells her that they needed to kill her and Kurtis, so they don't find the Gladius Dei.\par
"Hmm. Seems like you failed at killing me," she laughs.\par
"Yeah but how about your friend? I'm not the only one here."\par
She stares at him with wide eyes. \i Kurtis!\i0 She lifts the boy up and figures he'd be of good use to an extent later. She opens the door to the library and throws him in there. She takes his gun, cell phone, and anything he can use to get out and smashes the phone with her foot. She heads over to the desk and opens the drawer to find a medi-pack. She throws it to him and runs out the library, locking the door behind her. She throws the kid's gun under a couch and readies her guns again, and runs up the stairs to Kurtis' room. She enters and sees dead bodies everywhere. Even a few body parts.\par
Kurtis comes out of the bathroom with blood splattered on his face.\par
"Karel knows," He says. "We have to get out of here."\par
"Pack up, and I'll go find Winston," she says, and runs off to go find the butler. She runs down the stairs again and heads towards the kitchen. She walks in and finds Winston with a shot gun in his hand.\par
"Winston! You okay?"\par
"Yes milady. I trapped them in the freezer."\par
"Good job. Listen, go get packed before anymore bad guys come in."\par
He nods his head and heads for his room. She runs back up the stairs and into her room and shoots a man right between his eyes, as he was climbing in through her balcony. She heads to her closet and quickly grabs a suitcase, her backpack, and clothes. She quickly throws her clothes and shoes in, and leaves it open. She goes back into her room and head for her dresser. She grabs a set of Uzis, and a shotgun and runs to her suitcase. She throws them in and zips it up. She drags it to her room, and puts her backpack on. She lifts up her suitcase and runs out of the room, down the stairs, and towards the library. She kicks the door open, and sets down her suitcase. She helps the hurt boy up and drags him and her suitcase out of the room. She heads for the now open front door. Out in the rain, she heads to the garage, and kicks the door open. She sees Winston and Kurtis already in the Jaguar, and throws open the back door. She throws the boy and her stuff in the back next to Kurtis, and shuts the door on a very confused Kurtis.\par
She opens the car door and gets in the driver's seat. Winston hands her the keys as she clicks the garage door opener. She starts the car, and backs the car out into the driveway. She heads for the gates that were broken open, and drives out into the open country around.\par
After fifteen minutes of silence, Kurtis spoke up. "Why the hell did you bring him?" Referring to the young man next to him.\par
"He can be of some use to us," She replies back.\par
"Whatever. What's your name mister?" he asks the boy.\par
He looks up at him, and with pain in his voice, he says, "Cody." Finally getting a good look at his face, Kurtis answers back, "You're pretty young to be working with Karel."\par
"He threatened my family," was all Cody said. He turned his head, and watched the scenery go by through the window. Kurtis looked back behind them and made sure no one was following.\par
They drove for another thirty minutes until they reached a small town. Lara drove up to a nearby hotel, and parked the car on the side. They all got out and grabbed their stuff, and started for inside the building. Once inside, Kurtis went up to the reception desk and got them two adjoining room. The receptionist handed him the keys to the room and they all headed for the second floor. They reached their rooms and walked inside throwing their stuff to the side.\par
Lara grabbed Cody by the shirt, and threw him to the bed.\par
"Kurtis. I want you to question him and find out anything about Karel."\par
"Yes mommy," he teased.\par
She walked up to Winston and they went into the adjoining room through the bathroom. "Winston, I think it'd be best for you to go stay with Father Patrick Dunstan, up in Ireland. I don't want to see you get hurt." She turns around and looks at the old man in front of her.\par
"Yes. I think I will Ms. Croft."\par
Lara smiles at the man that is like a father to her. She walks to the telephone on the nightstand and punches in the Father's number.\par
In the other room, Kurtis was doing exactly what Lara told him to do. He asked Cody why was he working for Karel.\par
"Like I said in the car, he threatened to kill my family if I didn't comply with him. He said, that if I join him, he'll make me and my family live in peace once he gets what he wants."\par
"What does he want?"\par
"The Gladius Dei."\par
"Big shocker there," Kurtis says sarcastically. "It's the only thing that can kill him other than the Periapt Shards."\par
"What?" Cody asks in confusion.\par
"Do you even know what Karel is?"\par
Cody shakes his head. "Well then. Time for a history lesson."\par
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\pard\sb100\sa100\lang1033\ul\b\f0\fs24 Chapter 4\ulnone\b0\par
Cody stares up at Kurtis while taking in all the information he had just learned. With big gray eyes, he says, "So Karel is the bad guy here."\par
"Yes."\par
"Damn. Just\'85" He looks down and puts his hands on his head. "What about my family?"\par
"I don't know. He could've already killed them anyway. Er what's your last name?"\par
Cody looks up. "It's Barter. Why?"\par
Kurtis shrugs, and thinks, \i Good. He's not a Lux Veritatis.\i0\par
Cody gets up from the bed, and limps to the bathroom. Closing the door behind him, Kurtis sits walks to the telephone by the bed and picks up the phone. He stares at the numbers with a look of pain, before dialing a number. He lifts the phone up to his face, and listens to the ringing. After five rings, he's about to hang up, when a small voice answered.\par
"Hello?"\par
"Elise? Hey it's Kurtis."\par
"Kurtis? Oh my god, are you okay? Where are you?"\par
"I'm in England. Listen, is mom there?'\par
"Yeah, you wanna talk to her?"\par
"Not right this second." He pauses. "Listen to me. I need you to meet me in Jerusalem in a couple of days. Can you do that?"\par
"I don't know about that Trent. You know mom doesn't even like it when I cross the street, so why would she let me cross the ocean?"\par
"Let me talk to her."\par
"Okay." There was a pause and then a muffled yell, and the another voice was on the line.\par
"Kurtis? Where the hell have you been?"\par
Kurtis runs his hand through his hair. "Business. Listen, I need Elise to come to Jerusalem in a couple of days."\par
"No. Absolutely no-"\par
"She'll be fine. She'll be with me and a friend."\par
"Like who?" she says in a im-still-not-letting-her-go-no-matter-who-your-friends-are.\par
Kurtis looks over at the bathroom door, and making sure no one is coming out, he says, "Lady Lara Croft."\par
"Oh." There's a pause on the end of the other line. "Well\'85fine. But when she comes back, there better not be anything physically, or mentally wrong with her, you hear?"\par
"Yes, mom. Tell her to be ready when I call okay? Got to go. Love you. Bye." He hangs up and turns around to walk to the bathroom door. Thinking about what he had just done, he realizes he's bringing his younger sister into this mess. He knocks on the door, and gets a "hold on."\par
The door opens and Cody emerges with a smile.\par
"What you smiling about?"\par
"My hair looks amazing."Kurtis looks at his hair, and sees that the front is spiked up.\par
"Did you look at yourself the entire time you were in here?"\par
"Yeah."\par
"Wow, dude." Kurtis pushes him out of the way and unlocks the other door, to the room with Lara. He walks in and sees Winston grabbing his suitcase. He looks at Lara and she gives him a look he can only take as regret.\par
Winston says his goodbyes and they all tell him to be careful on his way to Ireland.\par
After he left, Kurtis turned to Lara. She tells him it would be better if he was there than where they were going. Kurtis wanted to hug her right then and there. To tell her everything is going to be okay because the look she had on her face said it all. She might not admit it but she was scared of what might happen in the next couple of days. Scared because she might not be able to kill Karel this time, and scared because she's afraid of losing Kurtis. She went through so much with that man. Lara stares up at him and thinks about hugging him, but decides against it because it'd be very un-Lara like to do so without a reason.\par
She walks past him into the other room, to grab her stuff. She bends over to grabs her suitcase, not realizing Cody was watching her. She turns around and stops short when she notices Cody smiling.\par
"Why the hell are you smiling?"\par
Cody just laughs, and replies, "My hair looks amazing, that's why. Oh I just learned Karel is evil so now, you don't have to kill me later."\par
\i If you keep up with that attitude, I might have to.\i0\par
She walks back to her room and tells Kurtis, "That room, the one with Mr. Conceited, is your room. You'll be sharing it with him."\par
"Oh that's just wonderful." He rolls his eyes and heads off for his room. Lara looks at the clock, and gasps at what the time is.\par
"It's already 5 o'clock? But everything happened so fast\'85" she trails off. Shrugging, opens her suitcase, and takes out a take top and pajama pants. She closes the door to the bathroom, and quickly changes. She takes her rubber band off, and runs her hand through her braid to make it unbraided. Her hair falls, framing her face. She lies down on the bed, feeling more tired than hungry. She decided to take a nap. And it was a disastrous nap.\par
\i Black, darkness, pain, was all Lara could see. She turned around and came face to face with the man that she was sure was dead before all this mess happened."Karel." she whispered. Karel smiles and slaps her across the face. She falls down to the ground, and holds her cheek. She looks up at the man with hatred in her eyes. "We'll be coming for you, and your little Lux friend," says Karel. Lara pushes herself up off the ground, and when she goes in to punch the nephili freak, he disappears.\i0\par
Lara awakes, sitting up, and breathing hard, gasping for air. \i They're coming\i0 , was all she could think about. She slides off the bed and looks at the clock. \i Okay, it's 9 o'clock. Wonderful.\i0\par
She takes off her clothes, and quickly changes into her previous attire. She pulls back her hair, and does a loose braid, and after that she packs up her suitcase, grabs her pistols, and then puts on her backpack. She barges into the adjoining room and surprises Cody and Kurtis.\par
"Get packed up. NOW."\par
"Yo! What the hell?"\par
"Karel is coming. We better get going to Jerusalem or we are never going to be able to defeat that bastard."\par
Cody looks up at Lara, and could tell she wasn't kidding. He looks over at Kurtis, and Kurtis just looks at the phone.\par
"Lara, take Cody to the lobby. I'll be down in a minute. Let me pack up."\par
She nods and motions for Cody to follow her. When she left, Kurtis picked up the phone and dialed his sister, Elise.\par
When she picked up he said in a hurried tone, "Get your butt to Jerusalem now."\par
And he hung up. He headed over to his bag, and carried it through the door way, down the hall way, and to the stairs. He headed down the stairs, and towards the receptionist, handing her, the key to his room. He turns around and starts walking to the door, following Lara and Cody out to the car.\par
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\pard\sb100\sa100\lang1033\ul\b\f0\fs24 Chapter 5\ulnone\b0\par
On the plane to Jerusalem, Kurtis kept looking over at Lara, making sure she was alright. He wants to find the Gladius Dei as much as she did, but he realized he didn't want to lose her, in this process. Lara looks up and catches him staring. She gives him a small smile, and thinks, \i God, those blue eyes.\i0 Her heart starts to beat fast against her chest. \i What the hell?\i0 She looks away and stares out the window of her private jet. Her mind wanders over to Kurtis again, and she remembers her frisk at the Louvre.\par
\i The way his hand gently moves down her arm and stops at her hip. Gently taking her gun away from her hand, throwing it down on the ground. He touches her hand, and continues along her stomach, having the slightest touch, giving her goose bumps. He reaches her other hand and takes her gun. Lara stares down, frowning. Trying to break free from the mysterious man's grip, she starts to turn around, but the man presses his gun against her neck harder. He moves his hand to her backpack, taking the painting. Getting pissed, she uses all her body strength and spins herself around to face the man. The first thing she noticed of the man was his eyes. His beautiful blue eyes. She was mesmerized, and realized this was the same man she saw at Caf\'e9 Metro.\i0\par
\i Kurtis jabs his Boran X at her shoulder, staring deep into those chest nut eyes. Feeling as if in a trance, he leans forward, as if he were to kiss her. Lara leans in too, but Kurtis comes back to reality, and immediately regrets it. He backs away from her, still aiming his gun at her. Lara looks away, and watches the mysterious weapon that almost struck her, fly back to his owner.\i0\par
Oh my\i , she thought, staring at the man now across the room.\i0\par
Coming back to reality, she looks up to see Kurtis' trademark smirk across his face.\par
\i Why the hell is he smirking?\i0\par
\i You'd freak if I told you\i0 . Lara jumps in her seat. She looks around her seat and sets her eyes back on those cerulean eyes. Her eyes become bigger as she realizes that he read her mind and was talking to her telepathically. \i You bastard. How long have you been listening in?\i0\par
\i Since you zoned out, into your own little world. Never knew you loved my eyes so much\i0 , he laughs.\par
"Shut up." Lara turns a bright red, and Cody looks up from his seat across them, raising an eyebrow. Then not really caring what they were doing, he shrugged and looked down at his lap. Lara turns and looks outside the jet's window. \i El no es mejor asumir que estoy infactuated con el. Y que si es tan attractive y que hemos estado juntos en el \i0 infierno, thinking to herself in Spanish so Kurtis won't know what she's pondering about.\par
"What the hell," she heard him mutter. She smiles at herself thinking, \i Confused?\i0\par
\i Yes.\i0\par
\i Stay out of my head Kurtis. Or I'll put you back in the hospital.\i0\par
\i Ouch. Is that suppose to scare me?\i0\par
\i Don't push it Trent. \i0 Kurtis pops out of Lara's head, and goes into Cody's.\par
\i Man I wish I could go back home mom. I miss her so much. If Karel lays a finger on her I swear I will kill the bastard myself\'85if Kurtis and Lara don't first. They seem really set on this. I wonder what Karel did to them\'85\i0\par
Kurtis was about to answer but remembered he was reading his mind. He leaves Cody's head and remains in his own little world we call a brain. He decides to take a nap and closes his eyes. Quickly, Lara heard snoring coming from Kurtis and felt relieved she had her brain to herself.\par
She started to think about Kurtis, mentally slapping herself for doing so. She lets out a low sigh and Cody looks up at her.\par
"What's wrong, Lara?"\par
"Hmmmmm?" she looks over at him. "Oh just thinking how we are going to find the Gladius Dei. Kurtis never told me where it is located exactly."\par
"I know where."\par
Lara looks him squarely in the eye. With a suppressed look, she asks," Where the hell is it?"\par
Cody smirks. "The temple of Jerusalem. I heard it is buried deep underground the heart of Jerusalem."\par
Lara quirks her head to the side. "Really?" she says with interest.\par
"Yeah. I uh sorta overheard Karel saying so." Cody looks away.\par
"Well we have somewhere to start now." She smiles at the thought of going tomb raiding again.\par
She closes her eyes and drifts off to sleep, leaving a seventeen year old to stay alert.\par
\b 1 hour later\'85\b0\par
The trio walks up a flight of stairs to their hotel room, after checking in at the reception desk. Kurtis sets his bag down on the ground and opens the door with the slide card. Lara pushes him out of the way and strides in, setting her belongings at the end of one of the beds. She looks around the two-bed hotel room seeing the bathroom to the right of the door, a TV, a desk with a lamp on it, and a night stand with a phone and another lamp, in between the two beds. Checking the clock, she turns around and faces Cody walking in with Kurtis trailing behind him.\par
"I say we get to bed. We've got a long day ahead of us." And with that, she grabs pajamas out of her bag, and walks to the bathroom to change.\par
As she closes the door, Cody says, "But there is two beds. And three of us."\par
"Yeah so?" asks Kurtis. "Me and Lara will take this bed," pointing at the bed with her belongings on top. "And you take that bed," referring to the other bed.\par
"Sounds good to me." Cody jumps on the bed, instantly falling asleep. Kurtis tugs his shirt off, revealing his nice eight-pack abs. He kicks his boots off and starts to take off his pants. He grabs some nice pajama pants and slides them on, right as the bathroom door opened.\par
Lara sees Cody on the other bed, and looks back at Kurtis with a glare.\par
"I'm not getting in bed with you."\par
"I promise I won't do anything," he smiles.\par
"Promise my ass," she mutters.\par
She pulls back the covers and gets in the bed. She covers herself and feels Kurtis get in next to her. Turning so her back is faced towards him, she hears a sigh.\par
"Lara."\par
"What," she spits back.\par
"Lara I'm sorry for what happened earlier."\par
"Hmph."\par
"I really am!" Kurtis puts his hand her waist and turns her around. She sighs and looks him in the eyes. Her heart started beat faster. \i Those eyes\'85those lips.\i0 Kurtis looks deep into her brown chocolate eyes. \i If I could have her\'85\i0 , he thinks. And before he could stop himself, he leaned closer to her face centimeters away from her lips. Lara, remembering when they almost kissed in the Louvre, decided to make this the moment when they actually did. She leans forward and plants her lips on his mouth. Surprised, Kurtis laid there, shocked. But he regained his composure, and pushed against her, making the kiss more fierce.\par
They pulled away to breathe, but Kurtis quickly grabbed her waist, pulling Lara closer to him, and resumed their kiss. Lara wraps her arms around his neck and he pulled her up on top of him. She started to kiss him more passionately, and Kurtis moved his hands up and down her arms. Lara pulled away from him, and stared deep into his eyes, wishing she could stay in his arms forever.\par
Kurtis brushes away strands of hair from her face. "You don't know how long I've wanted to kiss you," he chuckles. Lara just smiles and lays her head on his chest. The slow steady rising of his chest helped Lara fall asleep. Kurtis looked down at her face, and finally saw Lara at peace. \i Too bad it won't last long. \i0 He sighs and falls under the spell of sleep.\par
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\pard\sb100\sa100\lang1033\ul\b\f0\fs24 Chapter 6\ulnone\b0\par
Kurtis awakes with the sun shining bright in his eyes. He squints and rolls off the bed, looking for Lara. Realizing she's not there, he gets up and walks over to the desk. He finds a note from Lara, saying, "Be back in a few, had to get supplies." Kurtis smiles, and looks over at Cody who is still knocked out. He bends down to pick his shirt and pants up off the ground. Turning, he sees Cody stir from his sleep, only to fall back asleep. Kurtis walks towards the bathroom and quickly slips out of his pants and boxers. He turns the shower on and gets in, washing his hair with the hotel shampoo. He hears the door slamming shut and turns the water off. He gets out and dries off quickly before putting on some clothing. He pulls on his shirt and pants and walks out the bathroom, clashing into Lara.\par
"Where you been?"\par
"Shopping. You can't go tomb raiding in that outfit and neither can Cody. So I bought some descent clothing for the both of you. Oh and I bought some more guns," she smiles.\par
Chuckling, Kurtis says, "You and your guns." He turns to run and jump on Cody's bed to wake him up, but Cody was already stirring, so Kurtis wasn't able to have his fun. He frowns at Cody getting up from the bed, walking towards Lara. He takes his clothes and goes back into the bathroom leaving Lara and Cody to themselves. Lara hands Cody his new clothes and he takes them with a confused look.\par
"Why you giving me clothes?"\par
"You need some."\par
Kurtis walks out in the new outfit she got him. Wearing khaki shorts and a white short sleeve shirt, Lara hands him some new shoes. He takes them and sits down on the bed, putting them on. Cody takes his turn in changing and when he came out, Lara handed him some shoes.\par
"Alright, we should be set. We'll leave for the Gladius Dei, in an hour. I'll be in the gym." She sets off for the gym, leaving Kurtis sitting on the bed and Cody putting his shoes on. "Well," Kurtis starts, putting his hand on his knees, and pushes up off the bed. "I'm going downstairs. Wanna come?"\par
Cody nods and follows Kurtis out the door into the hallway.\par
They get halfway down the stairs, when Kurtis tells Cody he left something in the room.\par
"Okay. I'll meet you in the lobby," says Cody. He walks the rest of the way down and Kurtis turns back around and runs to the room. He heads inside and walks to the phone. He quickly punches in Elise's cell phone number and waits impatiently for her to answer.\par
After five rings, he hears a, "Hello?"\par
"Elise. It's Kurtis. I'm guessing you're in Jerusalem already."\par
"Yeah, just got off the plane."\par
"Okay. Go get checked into a hotel, and meet us at the museum downtown, in an hour. Got it?"\par
"Yeah, yeah. See ya." Kurtis hangs up and walks back into the hallway, closing the door behind him. He walks down the hallway to the stairs, and stops. Swearing he heard someone right behind him, he turns around and finds that no one is there. \i Okay. That's a little creepy.\i0\par
He walks down the stairs to the lobby and watches Cody trying to hit on some random girl. The girl looks away, rolling her eyes as if she was annoyed. Kurtis laughs, and walks into the gym to look for Lara.\par
He spots Lara near the back and realizes she's the only one in the gym. He walks up to her, and waits for her to finish her running on the treadmill. Once she stopped, she got off the treadmill, and stared him down.\par
"What?"\par
"Nothing," says Lara.\par
"Whatever," he shakes his head, "Listen, someone I know is going to meet us at the museum. They're going to help us with finding the Gladius Dei."\par
"Oh? Who is it?"\par
"You'll see," he smiles and takes Lara in his arms kissing her very lightly on the lips.\par
"Hmm. Is this someone a girlfriend of yours?" she teases.\par
"Oh Croft," he laughs. "You wish. Just be nice to her, okay?"\par
"Fine."\par
\ul\b 1 pm-\ulnone\b0\par
Lara gets out of the car with the boys following right behind her. Kurtis tips the driver, and looks up at the building. He whistles, and comments on how big it is.\par
"I know. It's huge!" comments Cody.\par
"Well, let's head inside," replies Lara. They push open the doors, and walk inside the main hallway. Looking around the big room, Kurtis spots a young girl of about sixteen with long dark brown hair, sitting on a bench on the other side of the hallway. Recognizing her, he says to the group, "Come on. This way guys."\par
He leads them to the girl, and she looks up with huge blue eyes.\par
"Kurtis!" She jumps up and gives him a big hug. "I've missed you so much!"\par
"I've missed you too, Elise."\par
Lara raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms. \i Who is Elise? She looks like Kurtis a lot. \i0 She turns to Cody, but all he does is shrug with a confused look. Kurtis pulls away from Elise and looks at her. She's grown so much since the last time he saw her. \i Damn, she looks so grown up. How long has it been? Three years?\i0 Realizing Cody and Lara were still there, he turns around and apologizes, introducing each other.\par
"Wow, I can't believe I'm meeting Lara Croft!" says Elise overjoyed. She sticks out her hand, and Lara takes it and shakes hands with her. "Kurtis, is this your sister?"\par
"Yes. She's my little sister."\par
She looks at Elise, taking her hand away, and asks, "So you are going to help us?"\par
"Yeah."\par
"But what do you know about the Gladius Dei?"\par
"That it can kill anything, and that it's hidden in the Temple of Jerusalem, right under this building. I've been doing my research on it. Don't worry. But," she adds, "There will be obstacles we must go through. This weapon was founded by the Lux Veritatis, and they hid it there, to keep it safe."\par
"Great," Lara says sarcastically. "That means traps that will most likely kill us."\par
"Exactly."\par
Lara looks at Kurtis. "Did you know?"\par
"Well, yeah."\par
"Then why didn't you tell me?"\par
"I didn't think I should have. It's Elise's job to do that anyway."\par
Lara glares at him, wondering why it was her job. Starting to ask why, she gets cut off by Elise, saying, "Okay, we better get going."\par
"Yeah or Karel might find us," Kurtis pitches in.\par
"I looked at the map of the museum and they are apparently doing a dig, to where we need to go. It's in the middle of building, so it will be cut off from tourists. Which means it will have security, so one of us will have to make a distraction," says Elise.\par
They all look at each other, and Cody speaks up. "I'll do it."\par
"Alright, follow me."\par
She starts walking off towards the middle of the museum, with Lara, Kurtis and Cody following. Maneuvering through tourists, and natives, they find themselves in an area with a security guard and a door. There was a sign on the door, that was in English and Arabic, saying, "Archeological dig."\par
"Bingo," whispers Lara. Elise turns around to face the group with a smirk that resembles Kurtis' a lot. "Cody. Time for you to shine."\par
Cody puts on a devious smile, and cracks his knuckles. He pushes them aside and walks up the guard on duty. He stands there, with that smile on his goofy face, and waits. The guard finally got annoyed and yelled at him, but Cody quickly grabbed for his gun and ran off back to the front of the museum, laughing his head off. The guard ran after him, leaving the trio to do their work.\par
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\pard\sb100\sa100\lang1033\b\f0\fs24 Chapter 7\b0\par
Lara opens the door and is hit with a sense of familiarity. \i I feel like I'm back at the Louvre. But this time, I didn't have to kill anybody to get here.\i0 They walk down some stairs and end up in what looks like a humongous basement. In the middle of the room, was a hole with lights all around it. On the sides of the room, were little trailers filled with guards.\par
"Shit. We have company," Lara whispers. She points at one of the trailers, and Kurtis looks up just in time to see a guard walking out. Lara and Kurtis both get their guns ready, Lara with her trusty pistols, and Kurtis with his Boran X. Lara fires and the guard falls down with a grunt. \i Never mind. This is exactly like the Louvre. \i0 That caught the attention of the other guards inside. Kurtis quickly runs up the trailer, hiding next to the door, shooting as the guards come out. Lara shoots at the final one, while Elise checks to make sure there is no one else around.\par
Sure that there was no one around, she walks up to the hole and looks down. She gets on her knees and stares down the hole. Examining the wall, she declares that they can climb down easily with the right equipment.\par
"Hey guys, grab some climbing equipment. It's going to be a long way down."\par
Kurtis nods and walks inside the trailer, scanning the little place for climbing gear. Coming up with nothing, he walks back out shaking his head. Lara walks into the other trailer van, and spots some climbing gear on the wall to the right. She smiles, taking the gear off the wall. Realizing, there's only two grapples. She walks back out, towards everybody near the hole and holds up the two equipment.\par
"One of us has to stay. I will, sense you two are Lux."\par
Kurtis speaks up. "But we need you. In case of something happening, you can get the sword, and make a run for it."\par
Lara shakes her head. "No."\par
"Ugh. Just take a grapple. Elise will have the other one. I'll climb down on the your grapple when you're down."\par
"Whatever. We better hurry before Cody gets caught and the guard comes in."\par
"Too late," says Kurtis, as they hear maniac laughing coming through the door. Cody runs in empty handed, crashing into Elise. "What the hell?" yells Lara. She quickly turns around and shoots the guard coming their way. Once the guard had fallen, she turned back around.\par
"Nice distraction," she says sarcastically. Cody gets off Elise, helping her up. Brushing the dust off her shirt, she swats his hand away muttering, "Fuck off." She looks off with a look of embarrassment, as she crosses her arms, shielding her body. Cody turns to Lara smiling, "Why thank you."\par
Lara rolls her eyes, and readies her grapple to her waist. She grabs a pole and thrusts it into the ground hard, checking to see if it'll stay. Satisfied, she circles the grabble end around the pole, and tugs, making sure it'll stay. For sure that it'll take her weight, she jumps off the edge of the hole, and hoist her way down the long drop, using the wall for safe leverage. Everyone looks at her climbing down, and Elise does the same. Cody looks around for another grapple, not finding one.\par
Looking back towards the hole, he opens his mouth to ask Kurtis how the hell they are to get down there, but his question was answered, as Kurtis grabbed the rope, of Lara's grapple, and began to make his way down.\par
"Thought that wasn't safe?" he asks.\par
"Shut up."\par
Cody holds his hands up in defense and follows Kurtis down, but on Elise's instead.\par
Lara reaches the ground, stepping one foot on the ground, then another. She looks up and sees Kurtis coming down, then looks to her left, and sees Elise, just touching the ground. They nod, and unlatched the grapple from their belt, and stepped back, to wait for Cody and Kurtis. Once they hit ground, they turned on their heels and walked forward through a stone archway. Lara looks up the hieroglyphs on the top of the archway, not recognizing the writing. She looks with confusion, as Kurtis looks up at what she's staring at. Recognizing the scripture, he smirks and says, "Lux Veritatis writing, \i sweet heart.\i0 " She shoots Kurtis a deathly glare, but keeps walking forward.\par
They keep walking 'till they smell something raunchy.\par
"Ew! What is that smell?" asks Elise.\par
Lara takes a step forward, and lights a flare into the now dark hallway.\par
"AHHH!"\par
"There's your answer," Lara says. Dead bodies of the museum's archeologist lay in front of them. Scorched, and cut. "Shit," Cody whispers.\par
"I'm going to take an educated guess, and say this is a trap right here," retorts Lara.\par
"It is," Kurtis pipes in. Lara looks on the walls, and notices a crack. She leans in closer, and sees the edge of a blade. She steps forward, and the blade comes swinging out, almost cutting her. She jumps back and sees fire coming out of the wall now. The fire starts, then stops, so she times the blade and the fire at the same time, and runs like hell. She makes it to the end, without getting touched. She smiles and turns around, signaling for the rest to follow. Elise looks at her, then at Kurtis with worry in her eyes. She turns back around to the trap, and walks forward to the blade. When the blade was in the wall, and the fire was out, she closed her eyes and ran as fast as she could. Near the end, fire came out and burned her arm. She screamed but ran into Lara, and was happy it was over. Little did she know, it wasn't.\par
She holds her arm as Lara takes a look at it. While she was taking out a medi-pack, Cody ran through the trap, and made it to the end, with his hair singed. "Nice hair," Lara says sarcastically while treating Elise's burn.\par
"What?" Cody quickly moves his hand to his hair, and lets out a little whine. He moves to the side, as Kurtis comes racing in. Kurtis looks at Cody and says, "Ha ha. Nice hair."\par
Cody whimpers childishly and looks away. Kurtis looks down at his baby sister, and drops down to the ground. He looks at her arm, and she gets up saying it was fine. She pulls Kurtis back up, and they look down the dark hallway. Lara lights up another flare, and begins to walk forward. They follow her, until she stopped.\par
"What is it, Lara?" asks Kurtis.\par
"Something isn't right."\par
"What's not right?"\par
She turns to everyone and before she could say anything, they hear footsteps behind her. She turns back around and gasps.\par
"Never mind," she says. What was in front of them, was a skeleton Lux Veritatis Warrior.\par
"Oh shit!" you hear Cody say. Lara takes out her gun, and was about to shoot, but was stopped short, as Elise and Kurtis walked up to the Warrior.\par
The Warrior was about to strike them, but Kurtis hold up his hand, and says, "Stop."\par
He stopped mid air, sword almost touching Kurtis' neck. Kurtis stares the skeleton down, showing who the boss is. The skeleton lowers his sword, and grunts.\par
"You will take us to the Gladius Dei."\par
The skeleton turns and begins walking, and they follow.\par
After five minutes, Lara burst. "How the hell can you control that thing?"\par
Kurtis simply looks at her with a sheepish smile. "'Cause it's my ancestor. It HAS to listen to me."\par
"Whatever."\par
They continue walking until the warrior stops at the end of the now narrow hallway. Kurtis walks up to him and looks around. They were in a big room with a pedestal in the middle. On the pedestal was a sword, gleaming, staring back at them.\par
"Wow, it's beautiful," retorts Lara.\par
They all stare at it, like they were waiting for it to do something. Then Cody took a step forward, but Elise quickly grabbed him. She pulled him to the ground, as the floor he took a step on, crumbled and fell into the dark abyss below.\par
"Shit," Cody whispers. He gets up and stares down. Lara looks around, and devises a plan. She notices hanging above the sword, a huge blade. Considering that it will fall down and cut anyone that touches the sword, she thinks of a way to get quickly grab it. Taking in consideration of the floor, she runs on the side of the room, with the floor falling behind her.\par
"Lara!"they all shout. She smiles, as they have no idea what Lara is capable of. She quickly runs over to the pedestal and jumps onto the edge. She loses her balance for a quick second but regains it back as the floor falls. Looking around at the remaining floor, she readies herself and stopped right as the blade came down, swinging. She drops down to her knees and ducks her head, thankful that the pedestal is big. She dares to look up and sees the blade back up. She looks back towards the gang, and they all stare back at her with huge eyes, and gaping mouths. Lara looks back up to the blade slowly gets up. Very carefully, she grabs the Gladuis Dei and runs like hell back to the group, while putting it in her bottomless backpack. But taking the sword set off another trap. The place began to fall down. The floor was falling all around her, but she kept pushing herself forward. She jumps and rolls towards Kurtis and they begin to run back to the traps before. With the ground shaking, they all struggle to make it out alive. Thankfully, the fire and the blade traps were disabled by the place crashing, so they made a quick escape. They make it back to the rope and they all quickly begin to climb back up.\par
Falling debris made it hard for them to make it back up, but they made it. They climb out of the hole, and look back down to see rocks piling up. They fall back on their backs and look up to see guns pointed to them. They hear footsteps behind the men holding the guns. The footsteps stop and they hear someone say in a chilling tone, "Knock them out, then search them."\par
Panic began to overtake Elise, making her let out a smile whimper. The men force them all to get up and turn around. As they turn around hesitantly, one of the men knock out Cody, smiling. Cody falls and then Kurtis and Elise were next, leaving Lara. Waiting for the blow, she screams in surprise and in pain as one of the men grab her by the hair, and pulls her head back. All she sees is the man bring a clenched fist down on her face, then darkness.\par
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\pard\sa200\sl276\slmult1\qc\b\fs44 The End\par
\pard\sb100\sa100\qc\cf1\lang1033\b0\f2\fs18 Lara Croft and Tomb Raider are trademarks \line or registered trademarks of Square Enix Ltd. All rights reserved.\cf0\f0\fs20 \par
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